'Remarkable and joyous' - Lady Mary Peters on 50th anniversary of Olympic gold medal win

Lady Mary Peters was installed as a member of the Most Noble Order of the Garter in 2019

When Lady Mary Peters talks about leaving a legacy, she means it. And, at the age of 83, is still working tirelessly to enhance it further.

Saturday will mark the 50th anniversary of the Northern Ireland athlete's historic gold medal win in the pentathlon at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

A series of celebration events is planned in Belfast over the weekend which she will enjoy, but, as she looked ahead to the milestone, it was when speaking about the work she has done during those intervening 50 years that seemed to fill her with most pride.

The Mary Peters Track in south Belfast opened in 1976 and, for over 40 years now, the Mary Peters Trust has been offering support to aspiring young athletes from Northern Ireland to help them reach their full sporting potential.

"It is remarkable and it is joyous," Lady Mary said when asked how it feels to see the long list of athletes supported by the Trust, which includes Rory McIlroy and Rhys McClenaghan, doing so well.

"I saw Carl Frampton out running with his son recently and Graeme McDowell is still playing well - we gave him £1,000 when he went off to an American university," she said.

"Leona Maguire is doing so well, Bethany Firth and Michael McKillop - you name them, they are there. Ciara Mageean, who got two silver medals recently - Commonwealth and European - and nobody could be prouder of her than I am.

"And our boxers, such as Paddy Barnes, aren't they brilliant. They are grateful, they show their appreciation for the support that we gave them early on.

"They have grown in stature as well, and they are helping others now because they had the success that they have had. It will be an ongoing success story, I hope. The Mary Peters Trust is close to my heart. I work nearly every day for it, and it doesn't hurt me at all."

Rory McIlroy is among those to have received support from the Mary Peters Trust

The Northern Ireland public came together to acclaim their adopted daughter - Lady Mary was born just outside Liverpool but moved to Northern Ireland as a child - when, at the age of 33, she defeated home favourite Heidi Rosendahl in Munich to sensationally claim what was only the country's second-ever Olympic gold.

Nobody has managed to repeat the feat in an individual event since, but Lady Mary is hopeful when asked if she thinks that will happen in the future.

"I certainly hope so," she said. "There is a yearning here from people to succeed in every walk of life. I don't see why not.

"I just love to see anybody succeeding in sport because Northern Ireland are so generous to their sporting heroes."

Kate O'Connor is one of the most exciting young athletes in Northern Ireland and the 21-year-old, another who has received the backing of the Trust, will be joining a host of athletes including Daley Thompson in attending the weekend celebrations.

O'Connor is fresh from winning a silver medal in the heptathlon at the recent Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, and Lady Mary is looking forward to getting to speak with an athlete who was born in the same village as she was.

Lady Mary also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals

"Kate was an unknown quantity when she went [to Birmingham], people said to me she could just get a medal," the 83-year-old explained.

"She pushed Katarina Johnson-Thompson [gold medal winner] to the limit. You don't get that many chances to do a heptathlon, you have to seek them out. Kate will have to plan her programme and I hope she gets the guidance she needs.

"I am going to see her this weekend and am going to sit down and have a chat with her. I know that she lives in England now but she has the support of Northern Ireland, obviously. I'll do everything in my power to help her."

One of the 50th anniversary events will be the launch at Belfast's Ulster Museum of an exhibition including a range of stories, photographs and memorabilia reflecting Lady Mary's success and contribution to Northern Ireland's sporting, cultural and civic history.

The Olympic gold medal winner has spoken regularly in the past about how Northern Ireland should have its own dedicated sports museum, and she is hoping this exhibition could reignite the potential for that.

"I have another dream. It is my final dream and it is to have a sports museum [in Northern Ireland]," she said.

"This small community has produced so many amazing stars in sport and I would love us to not only honour the past and those who have succeeded, but also to inspire the future.

"People always say it is a wonderful idea, but we need a building and we need the money to make it a reality. We should never let all the memorabilia that we have in people's homes go to waste. We want to inspire others to do as well as we did."

Two-time Olympic gold medal winner Daley Thompson will be in Belfast for Lady Mary Peters' anniversary celebrations

Daley Thompson, who won Olympic golds for Great Britain in the decathlon in Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984, will be in Belfast to honour Lady Mary. As will Rosendahl, the German athlete narrowly defeated to the gold medal by Peters in 1972. The pair have remained friends since.

"I only beat her by a tenth of a second but the difference between gold and silver is amazing," Lady Mary remarked.

"I just feel very privileged that we have that friendship. We shared in a documentary which was remarkable, made out in Munich last year to celebrate the 50th anniversary."

When asked what the anniversary will mean to her on a personal level, Lady Mary said it makes her very proud, even if the scale of the reaction from other people is a tad overwhelming.

"I just can't believe that 50 years have gone. It is all so real still because it is played over and over again at each Olympics. It is a joy to know that people still rejoice in my success.

"It gets my heart pounding [thinking about her win] and I just wonder what would have happened had I been second. It did change my life forever and I am ever-so-grateful."

As are so many other Northern Ireland athletes.